Sloths, comics, and The Lagoon

A couple of months ago I read a pretty great graphic novel called The Lagoon, by Lilli Carre. It’s kind of hard to explain what it’s about–there’s a thing living in a lagoon, and weird stuff happens when it sings. The drawings are perfect. It’s actually a perfect book, or almost. Then, for Christmas, I got a beautiful box set of Tintin comics, so I’ve been reading through those as a treat. I’ve also been skimming portions of light zoology texts, trying to learn about sloths. Though some of its research has since become obsolete, the most informative thing I’ve read on the subject is S.W. Britton’s 1941 article ‘Form and Function in the Sloth,’ which is all about what kinds of environmental shifts caused sloths to evolve in the funny ways they did. I can tell you all about it if you want.